


Emotion prompts

by Nutriyum_Addict



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: F/M, Family Fluff, Pregnancy, Sex, Stuffed Toys
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-10
Updated: 2016-05-10
Packaged: 2018-06-07 13:36:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 4,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6807031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nutriyum_Addict/pseuds/Nutriyum_Addict
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emotion prompts originally posted on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Pride

“Sexiest butt?” Ben asks, looking from his smiling girlfriend to the colorful badge in his hand. He's a little confused to be honest, but also intrigued.

Leslie nods. “Yeah. Who else would win that? Oh! If you want I can make you a vest to put–”

“Um, no,” Ben answers slowly. “No. That’s okay. I can just…keep it in my pocket.”

He watches as Leslie keeps grinning and moves forward to wrap her arm around him and squeeze the sexiest ass in question. The gesture makes him smile and laugh even though the rest of her campaign staff is just over on the other side of the room.

It’s silly and it’s cute and good lord, he even feels a touch of pride that Leslie Knope thinks he has the sexiest butt. That she’ll spend some of her downtime making him something that states this fact. Something thoughtful and handmade that…has a embroidered image of an ass on it.

“Does the rest of the staff have their own badges?”

“Well, Ann already has a lot because she’s amazing, and April burned the one I gave her at the last Pawnee Goddesses retreat, so, besides Ann, you’re the only one right now,” Leslie pauses and then her eyes light up. “Oh! Do you think I should make badges for everyone else too?”

She’s just so excited about it that of course he nods. “Yes. I think they would like that.”

Even as he says it, Ben hopes she doesn’t want him to wear his sexiest butt badge around during official campaign functions. Because that would be a…little unprofessional-–even for Pawnee. And would not be the best idea given the their previous boss and subordinate scandal.

But still, when she grins at him and tugs on his tie, pulling him close for a kiss, Ben can’t help but feel that if she really wanted him to wear it, he would wear the badge…somewhere well hidden so that no one else could see it. Maybe attached to his boxers?

Of course, they’d both know it was there.


	2. Coping

“Mommy, we made vegetable calzones for dinner!” Five-year old Wesley tells her excitedly from her propped up Gryzzl tablet.

Leslie laughs even though she’s exhausted, taking in his happy and messy face in the familiar dining room of their DC home. “I can see that.”

Ben had to head to Washington unexpectedly for a vote and since Wesley was the only triplet who didn’t have a cold (specifically, coughing and sneezing–-sometimes both at once), Ben took their son with him for the two-day trip, while Leslie and the other kids stayed in Pawnee.

She misses her husband. And she misses her thoughtful and vegetable-loving little boy terribly. Both she and Ben travel on occasion for work, but it’s not so often that sleeping alone still doesn’t feel strange.

“And tomorrow?” Wesley starts, then pauses to adjust is glasses in a way that makes Leslie’s heart heavy with love, “tomorrow I get to go with daddy while he votes at work!”

“Wow! That sounds so exciting!” Leslie tells him, so proud of her enthusiastic son. Today he’s a kindergartner, but tomorrow? Maybe president. Possibly ruler of the universe? “You’re going to go with daddy while helps run the government.

Wesley nods seriously.

“Hey babe,” Ben says, sitting down next to Wes.

He takes a look at the tomato sauce on his son’s cheek and laughs before grabbing a napkin to wipe it off.

“So you had calzones, huh?”

Ben grins. “Yep. My assistant chef here wanted broccoli, zucchini, and carrots, so we had that. With a lot of cheese,” Ben pauses. “Because of all the vegetables.”

Leslie nods. “Sure.”

“And soon, it’s bedtime,” Ben says more to Wesley than to her.

“Noooooo! Robots and then books and then _cashpews_ , daddy!”

Wesley is in a nut-phase that neither Ben or Leslie can figure out, but every snack must include nuts.

“ _Cashews_. No _p_. How about one book and then three cashews, and we save the robots for tomorrow morning?”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Leslie adds.

“No,” Wes leans in close to whisper something in his father’s ear.

“What? What was that?” Leslie asks.

Ben smiles. “Sorry, it’s a secret. Man stuff.”

Later, when she’s in bed, she spends some time talking with Ben again on Skype. Propped up with a couple of pillows (his and hers), she appreciates having the whole bed to herself, but it also feels too big with him hundreds of miles away.

“So, what was the secret earlier?” It’s kind of silly, but it’s been bugging her. Her children do not keep secrets from her.

Ben smiles and looks over at Wesley in his green and blue striped pajamas and softly snoring beside his father in the big DC bed.

“It was just something about dinosaur-robots. I was just teasing with the man stuff.”

“Hmmm, well, kiss him again for me in the morning,” she requests. “Before you both go off to help run the country.”

“I will. And you kiss Stephen and Sonia for me.”

“Done,” Leslie agrees, watching fondly as Ben rubs Wesley’s back.

“Hey, have I been replaced?”

“What?” She follows his gaze to where Sonia’s stuffed ostrich is tucked into bed next to her on Ben’s side. “Oh, Sonia gave me him to sleep with so that I wouldn’t be _lonely without daddy_.”

She doesn’t tell him that Sonia sneezed on BoBo first.

Ben laughs quietly. “Is it working?”

“Not a chance, babe.”


	3. Energetic

Pumped-up Leslie is a handful. Of course she’s always a handful and really, Ben wouldn’t have it any other way.

She’s only gotten about six hours of sleep all week in the lead up to the debate, and after how incredible it went tonight…well, he thinks she might not sleep the rest of the night.

Again, he’s super okay with that. Especially when her tongue is in his mouth and her hand is in his pants.

“Oh my god, you were so amazing tonight,” he manages to get out–-he’s honestly still in awe.

“I was, wasn’t I?” She asks, smiling against his mouth.

Ben nods. And then he moans when she reaches down further and fondles his balls lightly.

It’s a quick backwards walk to his bed and then she’s on top of him, Ben unbuttoning her blouse as Leslie grinds into him, both of her hands occupied in getting his pants all the way undone and shoved down.

When he gets his hand in her pants, she’s already pulled him down on top of her and he has to prop himself up with one hand and finger her with the other.

“Tell me again,” Ben whispers.

“What?”

“Your closing statement. The super sexy part at the end.”

Leslie gives him a look that makes him swoon. And it’s all the more hot because she starts speaking while he’s got a finger buried inside her, where she’s all warm and wet.

“If I seem too passionate, it’s because I care. If I come on strong, it’s because I feel strongly. And if I push too hard, it’s because things aren’t moving fast enough.”

She pauses to accept a kiss and then she moans into his mouth when his thumb slides against her clit.

“This is my home. You are my family. And I promise you. I’m not going anywhere.”

When she finishes, his dick is even harder, if that’s possible. And when he pushes inside all of her passion and energy minutes later, Ben moves hard and fast enough for them both.


	4. Exhaustion

He and Leslie are sitting the couch after dinner, the first time it happens.

It’s only eight o'clock and they’re watching something on TV that Ben is only half paying attention to because he’s also obsessing over projected college tuition numbers just a bit. So, it’s a complete surprise when her head falls over against his shoulder with a light plunk.

Ben frowns. He’s actually a little concerned (did she faint?), but then Leslie starts snoring lightly.

His next impulse is to be very, very confused because it’s so early.

This is a woman that hardly ever drifts off before one AM. But here she is, his obviously very tired and four-month pregnant wife asleep an hour after dinner. Ben smiles and wraps an arm around her and turns the TV volume down.

She stays cuddled up next to him for a couple of hours before Leslie wakes up enough to go to bed, insisting that she was just resting her eyes and the she was completely paying attention to the TV--that he should ask her questions on what they were watching.

He declines to quiz her and instead, leads her upstairs with an amused grin.

The next evening, Ben pulls the afghan down and covers them up with it when she falls asleep and he stays up until eleven, just enjoying the feel of Leslie sleeping on him. The house seems almost too quiet with her out so early, but Ben feels this amazing protectiveness to just stay still and watch over her while she naps. Watch over all of them and keep them safe.

He doesn’t even mind when she drools on him a little bit. It’s honestly pretty adorable.


	5. Obsession

When he comes back from checking on the kids, Leslie has got her Gryzzl tablet on her lap and seems involved in swiping through some online research.

He peers at the screen and is a little surprised to see a travel page.

“Um, you aren’t actually considering a trip to Africa this summer, right?”

Ben waits for Leslie to say, No. Of course not. A family trip to Africa would be ridiculous and cost a fortune. She does not say these things.

“Babe?” He makes a face.

“Well, Sonia does make some excellent points and I did enjoy her presentation.”

“Sure. It was a great presentation but there is no way we’re taking everyone to North Africa so that BoBo can see his family, no matter how impressive our five year old daughter’s PowerPoint presentation was.”

“Well, it would be a great learning experience for the kids.”

Ben stares at his wife. “Please tell me that you don’t think that a stuffed ostrich actually has a real ostrich family in Algeria.”

Relief floods through him as Leslie starts cackling, before she sets her Gryzzl device on the table. “Of course not. And no, we’re not going to fly to Africa this summer on the whim of Sonia’s stuffed animal. But it’s very cute.”

Ben sits down next to her, feeling very relieved. “Its adorable. But, I’m thinking maybe Disney World? Or, we could just rent a lake house?”

Leslie nods. “Yeah. One of those is good. BoBo can just send a letter to his relatives. Maybe get together a care package with some of his favorite artisan crackers.”

“Are you–”

“Yes, Ben. I’m joking. We’re not going to send some of BoBo’s crackers to Algeria,” she says, reaching toward him to grab onto his shirt. “Now, are we going to talk about a stuffed ostrich some more or are we going to make out?”

“Make out,” Ben answers easily, forgetting all about BoBo as soon as he kisses his wife.


	6. Thankful

“Oh thank god,” Ben mumbles in relief, turning a bit to the side and seeing Leslie right there. She’s sitting up next to him on their bed, with her laptop open, typing away quickly on the keyboard.

“Hey, how are you doing?” She stops whatever work she’s doing and gives him her full attention.

Ben feels a cool hand on his forehead and moans at how nice her touch feels. “I’m not dead.”

“No. You’re not. Thank you for not dying on me before the wedding.”

“You’re welcome. The calzones betrayed me.”

Leslie nods and smiles softly at him. “I know, babe. It’s okay. Do you think they might be done with their attack?”

He considers this. He doesn’t feel sweaty anymore. He doesn’t think anything is forcefully coming out any of his openings. Ben sits up and…the room doesn’t spin.

“I think…it might be over.”

“Good.”

“I threw up on your shoe earlier. Sorry about that.”

“You did,” she agrees. “And I forgive you. We’re about to be together forever, in sickness and in health, so we might as well practice a little bit first.”

Ben tries to smile and then lies back down, snuggling into her on his side. He remembers the very long car ride home after Leslie got him up off the floor in Chris’s office. He remembers puking on her shoe on their front steps. He vaguely remembers Leslie getting him into the shower and then into pajamas and bed.

His fiancée’s fingers start gently playing with his hair and Ben goes back to sleep, beyond thankful that this is the woman that he’s chosen to love.


	7. Shining

It’s one of the first memories that he can easily recall.

Ben is maybe four, almost five and it’s a snowy night in Partridge but his small bed is nice and warm. Nevertheless, he gets up and leaves his older brother Henry snoring in their room. Stephanie, the baby, has her own room down the hall because she cries a lot…and also smells, little Ben thinks at the time.

He tip-toes to the stairs and peers down at the living room.

But, instead of Santa Claus leaving presents, he sees his parents. And for once, they’re not fighting. They’re holding onto each other in front of the tree, the twinkling lights and the star on top all shining and making the room glow. His daddy is singing as they dance together. Something about how _there ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone_ and they actually seem happy and it’s really one of the first and only times Ben has seen (or will see) his parents in a room together without angry fighting or stony, uncomfortable silence. It makes him feel safe.

He forgets all about Santa and presents and just watches his parents dance and glow. Of course, they get divorced soon after and really, it’s just a relief for everyone.

Thirty-three years later, Ben watches Leslie Knope proudly and excitedly hand out copies of _Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America_ to everyone in the Parks office. He accepts his own copy with a small and awkward smile and can’t get that old song out of his head.


	8. Hate

He hates Pawnee for making her feel like this. For taking his enthusiastic, passionate, and positive wife and making her cry and burp and crazy laugh as she sits on their bed at eight-thirty at night in her Garfield t-shirt.

After they had gotten home, Leslie went straight upstairs and into the bathroom, while he waited patiently for her in the bedroom. When she came out in just her t-shirt, she crawled into Ben’s lap and he held her while she cried against his chest. She’s been on the bed ever since, even when Ben went downstairs to heat up some soup for dinner. 

Leslie hardly ate any of what he brought up, just sat on the bed cross-legged, her t-shirt bunched up around her hips, her pink and red striped underwear clearly visible, her makeup smeared, and her eyes red. She didn’t even respond to Ann’s numerous voice messages, just left a new outgoing one on her phone that was mostly…well, sobbing, burping, and crazy laughing.

“Honey? Hey, how are you doing?” He asks softly, walking slowly towards the bed.

He gets a half-sob, half-giggle in response that tears at his heart as he moves across the bed and wraps her in his arms again.

Sure, he knows Leslie will recover from this, that she’ll feel better eventually, and be back to her amazing self, but at this moment? Ben doesn’t how to help…how to make it better.

And that, he hates even more than the city of Pawnee right now.


	9. Cold

Ben can hardly imagine ever feeling cold towards her. Maybe some immature and passive-aggressive iciness if she were to be particularly obtuse during a High School Model UN event, but not even then. Not really.

In reality, he was more frustrated and hurt than mad (okay, and maybe a bit annoyed), but cold is definitely one thing that he has never felt towards Leslie.

“Tell me what you’re thinking about,” Leslie requests, putting her book down and taking Ben’s hand under the covers.

“I’m thinking that we should use my bed in the master bedroom at the new house and use this one in the guest room.”

She easily readjusts so that she’s half lying on top of him and can look him in the eyes, as his arms circle her and he lets his hands rest on the warm swell of her ass. “That’s not what you were thinking. You were frowning. And I know that beds make you happy.”

He gives her a small, amused smile. “Alright. I was thinking about you. And how I could never be cold towards you. Not like my dad was cold towards my mom when they were married. Well, and after the divorce too. He was mean sometimes. He never yelled much, but…”

“You could never be mean,” she assures him.

“I hope not. I think I got close when we were broken up, but–”

“Stop. That was over a year ago. And you weren’t mean. You were just…” she seems to mull it over before telling him that he was, “a little distant.”

Ben snorts and pats her through the material of her sleep shorts. “Yeah.”

“That was a long time ago. And now, you’ve come to your senses and we’re getting married.”

“Yes,” he confirms, snuggling closer. “Forever.”

They both admire her ring–the one that he had just put on her finger earlier that afternoon.

“Forever.” Leslie repeats and when she sinks down on him a few minutes later, all Ben feels is warmth.


	10. Grasping

Leslie Knope does not approve this message.

When she tackles him, Ben does not expect it and that works in her favor. She grabs the DVD with the negative ad on it and manages to keep it out of his grasp until it’s too late and they’ve missed the spot–all of Ben’s points and angles colliding with hers on a dirty, carpeted floor. Ben feels differently behind her when he’s fully clothed, when they’re struggling and at odds instead of joined together in harmony.

Later that night, she notices that she has a small bruise on her hip. He kisses it before they lie in bed and watch her new ad. The one they made together.

“I like this one better,” she says, turning to smile at him.

Ben nods. “I know. I do too. I’m sorry that I tried to talk you into an ad that you didn’t feel good about. That I tried to,” he pauses to make a face, “destroy your dreams.”

“It’s okay. You were easy to take down,” she teases and then yelps in surprise as Ben smiles and easily pins her to the mattress. The laptop gets pushed to the side as he settles his weight on top of her.

“Ben!”

“What? I’m just taking you down,” he says, giving her a smirk. “Easily.”

She tries to halfheartedly struggle a little, but not too hard. Why should she? It feels good, Ben on top of her like this, his fingers grasping her wrists and holding them above her head. Both of them in agreement and on the same page.

Her campaign manager and her are in love and this is exactly how she dreamed it would be when she was a little kid–strategy sessions, making ads together, late-night pajama party sleepovers.

And also, Ben is _much_ sexier than Mr. Belvedere.


	11. Triumph

It’s such a small thing, but at this moment, it’s everything.

A fun conversation once a day, at work, for five minutes.

Ben is practically agreeing to it–she knows him well enough to interpret his soft and easy smile. Well…the Peruvian Senate is considering it and Leslie has high hopes that they’ll agree. It’s just five minutes. It’s so little to ask. How could it not be possible?

Sure, just earlier Peru had moved that the Security Council formally condemn Denmark and stop her from making anymore unwarranted acts of aggression, and she had been calling for his head on a stick, but now they’re in peace talks. It’s all super chill and civil. And comfortable. And it makes her heart kind of ache to be this close to him and not be able to reach out and touch him, even as they laugh about Kathy Ireland and naked aerobics.

But..five minutes of giggling together or discussing Theodore Roosevelt or arguing the merits of calzones. It’s five minutes of Ben in her life and if that’s all she can have right now, she’ll take it. It’s five minutes that she can be in the same room with him and feel close to him and maybe not miss him so much that it hurts deep down in a way she can’t quite figure out how to fix.

Of course, it’s no where near enough–-it’s not falling asleep with her head on his pillow or pushing her fingers along his spine as he thrusts into her–-but if that’s all she can get right now, Leslie will take it as a triumph.


	12. Knife

“Are you happy?” Ben asks, pulling Stephen closer to him on the couch.

The almost-three year old just stares at him and shakes his head. It’s before dinner and Leslie is helping the other kids clean up before eating while this little triplet finished washing his hands early.

“Are you sad?”

They’ve been reading books about emotions lately and all three triplets love to express themselves to their parents now, yelling out words like, “Happy! Sad! Red!” It was a learning process–sometimes a non-emotion sneaked in there.

“Are you..ticklish?” Ben teases, and then reaches forward to gently dig his fingers into his son’s sides, making Stephen giggle and wiggle around the cushions.

“No! Daddy! I’m knife!”

Ben makes a face. “You’re knife? That’s not a feeling,” he says gently. “That’s a thing. Mommy and daddy use a knife to cut things. A little boy can’t feel knife.”

“I’m knife!” Stephen repeats, launching himself at his father for an extended hug session.

“Okay,” Ben agrees, kissing Stephen’s head. “You’re my silly knife son.“


	13. Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is in the Zombie Ben universe. [Night of the Living Ben](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5886049/chapters/13565875)

“So, what do you feel like for dinner tonight? Pizza? Waffles? Or…” Leslie pauses mid-sentence and then starts to cackle.

Ben rolls his eyes but he’s not just amused, he’s…happy. He’s so ridiculously fucking happy. Like so much happier than a member of the _walking dead_ has any right to be, Ben thinks.

For the last three years, it’s felt like there’s been this heavy and uncomfortable weight on top of him…smothering him slowly and making it hard to breathe. But now? He’s an un-dead zombie with a sexy, goofball, secret-girlfriend who makes silly jokes about his dining habits that make him laugh.

And also hungry.

He just ate this morning but being around a constant food source is…well, let’s just say he has no plans to go on a diet anytime soon.

“Come here,” Ben holds his hand out from his spot on the couch. “I know exactly what I want for dinner.”

When he’s gotten her pants undone and pulled her underwear down, Ben gives her a knowing look (she would call it a _smirk_ ) and lies down again on the couch. Leslie wastes no time crawling towards him, giggling as she goes, and spreading her legs right over his face as he moans in anticipation.

In his mouth, she tastes like sugar and vanilla and laughter and pure bright light.


	14. Graceful

It’s bigger than Ben imagined it would be.

He knows that Leslie doesn’t really care about that sort of thing, but this is _the one_. Sparkly and graceful, with a circle of little diamonds around the big stone. He can picture it on her slender finger easily, like it was made especially for her. It’s platinum with non-conflict diamonds. It costs a small fortune.

Ben doesn’t think twice about handing the man behind the counter his credit card, because he is ridiculously in love with Leslie Barbara Knope and he’s already spent a good chunk of money on his same-day flight to Indiana that leaves in about three hours. He’s going to have just enough time to stop home, pack a small bag, and rush to the airport.

“This one comes with a nice velvet box, just let me–”

“I have my own box,” Ben insists with a grin. “It’s kind of a thing we have. A box that we put meaningful objects in. For each other. It’s our special box.”

The jewelry store employee waits expectantly for Ben to produce this special box.

“Oh, It’s at home right now,” he responds with a shrug.

Their box is sitting on the dresser in his sparse bedroom, the Washington Monument still cushioned inside. The Washington Monument that is no longer Ben’s future.

Ben has actually walked by this jewelry store a few times, in the back of his mind, thinking that he should go in a take a look. Not that he’d ever been conflicted about marrying Leslie–he’s known she was the one…well, probably somewhere subconsciously, deep-down from the moment they shared that beer at ten AM.

No, an engagement ring has always been more of a formality in his mind. Something that he was definitely going to do in the future.

After Jen left his office this afternoon, Ben thought about his future for about seven whole minutes. And then he came to this jewelry store, walked inside, and went right to the counter with engagement rings.

“Are you sure you want to walk around DC with an $8,000 ring just loose in your pocket?”

“Oh, right. Okay. Yeah, give me the velvet box for now,” Ben says quickly, nodding his head.


End file.
